Weather

Please Help

The government has said its vaccination programme in Gloucestershire is a 'vital' part of its plan to tackle bovine TB, even though it maintains that it still needs to go ahead with culling.

BBC Midlands news reported yesterday (7 August 2014) that the vaccination programme, now in its 5th year, will continue, even though the second year of pilot culls is expected to begin within weeks.

The NFU has once again claimed that vaccination is not cost-effective.

Protesters plan to hold a demonstration against the cull in Worcester next Wednesday, 13 August, 4pm-6pm, according to Evesham Journal. You can find out the details here.

There will also be a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand, London, on Thursday 21 August, when the Badger Trust's legal action against Defra and Natural England is taking place. The protest will start at 12 noon and go on until 5pm. If you are on Facebook, you can see more details here: https://m.facebook.com/events/1436097686672812 and also on the Shropshire Badger Group Facebook page.

The culls are expected to begin again despite the new environment secretary Liz Truss, who replace Owen Paterson in the reshuffle, coming under pressure to think again. Campaigners hoped it would be a chance to change course, but Truss merely reiterated that the culls would indeed continue, and this time without being monitored by the Independent Expert Panel, whose evidence last year showed that the pilot culls were neither effective nor humane.